Posts under ‘Shell Employee Safety’

Two people were injured Wednesday morning (Nov. 8) in a fire on a Shell oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the company said. The remaining 46 workers were safely evacuated. A Shell spokesman said the fire happened at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday on its Enchilada platform at Garden Banks 128. Shell said it had identified the source of the fire and was “actively responding to the situation.” FULL ARTICLEread more

Comment by retired Shell International Group HSE Auditor Bill Campbell on the recent Energy Voice article:

If you are looking for a world class example of stupidity look no further than Shell and its incident on Barque.

We are living it appears in an age of stupidity. Academic papers give many reasons for this including use of technology, calculators, mobile phones etc and the dumbing down of debate through usage of the internet. Moronic behaviour is common even in those who lead us.

If you are looking for a world class example of stupidity look no further than Shell and its incident on Barque.

We have discussed leakage of hydrocarbons a lot recently, to reduce them to zero is the Industries greatest challenge and top priority. But here we have a significant leak of some 200 cubic metres of gas mainly methane caused it seems by stupidity, how else can you describe this, its like driving while texting, behaviour totally unexplainable to rational individuals. The ONLY reason we pressure test process vessels and pipework using water or inert gas AND prior to the introduction of hydrocarbons is to provide assurance that when the hydrocarbons are finally introduced there will be no leakage, and consequentially no risk to people.read more

Many people shared sightings of the explosion on social media. The St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office has stated that a transformer exploded, causing an electrical fire at an Entergy substation near the plant. The substation is the main electrical source for the plant, commonly called Motiva. Entergy has reached out to clarify that the transformer is owned by the Shell Convent Refinery. “We will be working with them to conduct a root cause analysis,” reads a statement from Michael Burns of Entergy.read more

Shell Brent Bravo disaster: “The installation manager and supervisors were working under a regime where production had to be maintained at all costs. Safety was a secondary issue almost totally ignored by the Managers in Aberdeen.”

John

You may wish to publish this as a follow up and contribution to recent inputs on your blog site. It is also certainly in the NASA and Shell examples a spectacular illustration of how ineffective at such times the so called governance process was included the much heralded concept amongst a management team of shared collective responsibility.

Article By Retired Shell International HSE Group Auditor Bill Campbell: “Forget about the consequence, it won’t happen, will it?”

Piper Alpha on fire shortly after the second explosion

Dutchdude on September 2nd spoke about the acceptance of risk being a trend amongst staff who have not witnessed serious events themselves, and therefore assume it won’t happen. I am sure he has a point, as they say, you don’t know what you don’t know. So inexperience is a factor.read more

NEW YORK/HOUSTON — Oil and petrochemical plants along the U.S. Gulf Coast intend to go ahead with plans for near record spending on expansions next year, despite Hurricane Harvey driving up labor costs and slowing work, experts said. Harvey largely spared oil and petrochemical plants along the U.S. Gulf Coast from significant damage but thousands of homes and businesses were not as fortunate. Refiners and recovery projects will compete for the same labor, driving up costs or causing labor shortages.read more

UPDATED WITH ARTICLE COMMENTS RECEIVED SINCE PUBLICATION, INCLUDING FROM BILL CAMPBELL

By John Donovan

It is getting on to 20 years since Shell safety expert Bill Campbell led an HSE audit team which exposed a “Touch Fuck All” culture in relation to maintenance and safety issues on Shell’s Brent Bravo platform. After two decades of promises by Shell to give safety the highest priority, Shell has just been ordered to shut down its North Sea Armada platform on similar grounds. This follows weeks after the issuance of a prohibition notice by HSE inspectors in relation to Brent Charlie. (See links below). read more

Royal Dutch Shell said Sunday the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey is causing the shutdown of its massive refining and petrochemical complex in Deer Park. Shell is closing one of Texas’ largest refineries, which can refine more than 315,000 barrels of crude oil a day into gasoline and other petroleum products. “The top priority of Shell Deer Park is to operate in a safe and environmentally sound manner. Due to continued inclement weather conditions from Hurricane Harvey, Shell Deer Park is conducting a controlled/planned shut down of the refinery and chemical plant,” Shell said in an email response.FULL ARTICLEread more

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc said on Sunday it has not yet been able to assess damage to its deepwater Perdido platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico after evacuating it ahead of Tropical Storm Harvey, which came ashore as a hurricane. The company scrapped plans on Saturday to send a reconnaissance flight over the platform, about 200 miles (321 km) south of Freeport, Texas, said spokesman Curtis Smith. A second flight will be attempted on Sunday.

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc said its Deer Park, Texas, refinery and chemical plant complex may be shut for up to a week because of Tropical Storm Harvey’s impact on the Houston area. Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said following a controlled shutdown of the complex including the 325,700 barrel per day (bpd) refinery on Sunday, only essential personnel would remain at the plant through the end of the week.

Reporting by Ernest Scheyder and Erwin Seba; Editing by Andrea Ricciread more

A report today by Seatrade Maritime News confirms that Shell’s massive FLNG facility Prelude has officially entered into Lloyd’s Register (LR) class. It also says that Prelude has arrived at its operating location in the Browse Basin, offshore northwest Australia (above) where it will be moored at a depth of 250m and will not be dry-docked for the first 25 years of its expected 50-year operational life. See their full article here from which the above extracts are taken. It lists the various parties involved in the huge project, including Lloyds Register. In December 2013, I published an article that should have set alarm bells ringing among all involved parties. Not one of them approached me seeking information.read more

SHELL BLOG

Comments

Bonus Group: It is understandable that a niche now exists in the market for a company similar to BG Group, but for Neptune Energy to set its aim at emulating and becoming like BG is nothing short of horrifying. Why anyone should wish to recreate the inept management, twisted HR policies and rancid technical half truths of BG Group in order to deceive the shareholders is beyond comprehension. If they do, then the Serious Fraud Office should be on the alert. Sammy 'two pools', whose past remit included selling Enterprise Oil to Shell, rather than ENI is made of sterner stuff. That said, his nuclear ambitions did fall somewhat short of those of Kim Yong Un. Let's wish Neptune Energy a long, scandal free future and greater integrity than bungling BG with its House of Cards and flamboyant ineptitude.

Bogus Group: Following the acquisition of Engie the Financial Times headline “Neptune Energy sets aim on being the next BG Group” may have sent a chill through some. To think there could possibly be a rise from the ashes is an alarming prospect
However there was some comfort in the company chairman statement “We have the opportunity to take the time to get it right”.
Hopefully this means their Ethics and Compliance foundation will actually be more than just another policy open to distortion by misconduct.

Bill Campbell: Is the New York City case against Oil Companies justifiable or just hot air?

Many, if not all prestigious US scientific journals estimate largest source of air pollution in US is caused by vehicle emissions. Current estimates that US has some 260 million automobiles and 11 million trucks. It is the daily emissions from these vehicles that are the cause of scientific concern. But anybody visiting Florida, and following a construction truck, will be familiar with black smoke in copious amounts emitting from the vertical exhaust pipe, sometimes it's so bad it can restrict your vision but Florida is not the only state of the US that does not require emission control, there are many more, monitoring for example (like a UK vehicle MOT) is not legally required or carried out.

So perhaps De Blasio should start suing these delinquent states.

In any case, I find the whole matter ludicrous in a country, where their President claims that human activity is not related in any way to global warming and appoints a head of EPA who is also so inclined (a man described by NY Times as an arsonist in the Fire Station) so why does Shell et all not call as witnesses in their defence the current EPA Director, or otherwise why does De Blasio not start by suing those states that allow millions of vehicles to pollute the atmosphere daily.
Bill

Bonus Group: Further to my last post on this blog. Sound Energy have now arranged a slap-up bean feast for their shareholders to be held on 15th February at Grace Hall, Leadenhall Street, London. Drinks at Carriages afterwards. Dress is formal so don't expect too energetic a food fight. Attendees must pay for their own tickets! All will be revealed about the new Coro strategy. You may recall that Sound shareholders will receive Coro shares as a result of the divestment of Sound's Italian assets. The question is whether Sound shareholders will end up in the soup.

Bonus Group: There are rumblings in the ether about Rockhopper Exploration plc having failed to perform Due Diligence with integrity in respect of their purchase of the Italian focused company Mediterranean Oil and Gas (MOG) in 2014, and in particular MOG's asset, the Ombrina Mare oil field.
Following the decision in February 2016 by the Ministry of Economic Development not to award the company a production concession covering the Ombrina Mare field, the company has considered its legal options with regard to obtaining damages and compensation from the Republic of Italy for breaching the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT).
Could this have anything to do with the sudden and unexpected departure of Rockhopper's Chief Operating Officer, one 'Good Time' Fiona MacAuley? Fiona, a Chartered Geologist, started her career with Mobil North Sea Limited in 1985 and has subsequently held key roles in a number of leading oil and gas firms across large mid and small cap E&Ps including BG and Hess.
Fiona is now Chief Executive Officer of Echo Energy plc where Stephen Whyte (also ex BG) is a Non-Executive Director, previously having been Chairman of Sound Energy. Fiona will also become a Non-Executive Director of Saffron Energy plc. It is proposed that Saffron acquires Sound Energy's portfolio of Italian interests and permits through the acquisition by Saffron of Sound Energy Holdings Italy Limited (SEHIL). SEHIL holds all of Sound Energy's Italian oil and gas interests through its own wholly owned subsidiary, Apennine Energy SpA (APN). It is proposed that Saffron will be renamed Coro Energy plc.
This is yet another 'reverse takeover' by the Sound Energy/Echo Energy Team. The share options for the directors are raining on them like confetti. Could there be bonuses in store for the Directors of this association of companies where the paint is never allowed to dry?
Plenty of 'smoke and mirrors' and wool being pulled over the shareholders' eyes in this can of worms.

Bogus Group: No doubt Chevron and partner Serica Energy will have their legal and commercial teams in action. Production on the partner owned Erskine platform has been shut down due to a blockage in the Chrysaor operated Lomond - Everest pipeline export route. Chrysaor purchased the assets from Shell who in turn inherited from BG Group.
Déjà vu springs to mind, as the Chevron partnership’s revenue was affected two years ago, due to a blockage in the same pipeline when BG Group was the operator.
The well-touted “lessons learned” jargon, will no doubt be on the lips of these companies executives as they scurry to apportion blame.
In a previous post Bonus Group stated “BG shrapnel has fragmented in the direction of Tailwind Energy”
This appears to be a similar story as other BG shrapnel (both operations and legal) moved to Chrysaor via the Shell route.
I’m sure the Chrysaor mob will feel comfortable dealing with the legal and commercial issues experienced with BG Group (later Shell), as it will be the same rhetoric for the causal factors. However Chevron and Serica may want to dig a bit deeper into the previous incident, to see how BG Group dealt with this, the transparency of reporting and who was made accountable.

Ornithologist: If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it may well turn out not to be a penguin!

Bonus Group: BG shrapnel has fragmented in the direction of Tailwind Energy (aka Tailspin Energy!). Much hot air from after-burn can be expected from this company - mercurial bunch. In December they announced the acquisition of Shell Expro's interests in Triton Cluster, located in the UK Central North Sea 190km east of Aberdeen. Their stated intention is to further develop the asset. Probably through a three pronged approach: bonus, bonus and more bonus! Will Triton turn-out to be a flounder?

Bill Campbell: End of ammunition supply!
Not sure what the ammunition comment means, are you being positive or negative. If Shell keep supplying the ammo well this website is under no obligation not to use it surely. We would all like the ammo to dry up. It would be pleasant to see the most corrupt organisation in Europe turn the corner, and for example demonstrate daily openness,honesty and integrity instead of serial lies. When I say it's a corrupt organisation I do not infer this characteristic on the worker bees, but it is clearly corrupt from the top to the top, that is in its boardroom, including the non-executives who tend to know what goes on but sit on their hands, anything for an easy life. Highly paid window dressing.

Ammunition: Mr Donovan, Shell seems to have provided you with a huge amount of ammunition over the years. Is there any end in sight?

Royal Dutch and The Law: Hello website, can I suggest that if the Dutch and Itailian Prosecution services are not aware of the Shell /police authority "happenings" in Eire, that they should be and quickly.

Shell Corrib Corruption: Mr D I make the reference of a link with police heroin dealing inquiry on this fact Athlone police station ( Heroin hub ) was the chosen destination for the balance of the Shell alcohol consignment on the instruction of Garda Sub Aqua SUPREMO Liam Grimes so that's drugs and alcohol meeting in the same police station "of all the police stations in all the world you had to walk into mine "...is there a " link. "Time will tell ...we recognise that 99 out of 100 Irish police personnel are amongst the finest in Europe....however ....

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